A Message from the Hall Maintainer

Dear visitors and colleagues,

Thank you for visiting the WWW Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

It is not a pleasant thing to recall those horrible atrocities. It is even more unpleasant to learn the denials of those crimes. However, for the sake of history, for the sake of future, and most unfortunately, for the sake of present-day, we have to remember them and to confront with their denials. We believe that it is also the same reasons for most of your visits.

To those who encourage and support this project, we are grateful. We also want to thank those who comment on it. Your comments give us the opportunities to improve the project or to make our opinions clearer. Most of the comments can be found on the message board, but here we would like to cite a correspondence with a Japanese visitor:

>I'm writing article about the necessity to learn English in highscool. I think one of them is to know about Japanese form World-wide view. So, I'm searching WWW page which is express about Japanese, we must know.

>Finally, I found it. It's your "Nanjing Massacre" page. Yes, we have to know history, though it is called dark side. We have to learn from history and world people's thinking.
>Our paper often reported act of Japanese empire army in W.W.II. But Now, I realize that we have to report the fact in past, and the outsider's present opinion about it....

1) The pages are created to expose those history revisionists and those who committed the crimes but refused to admit them and apologize for them. The pages are not against Japanese people in general.

2) It is also our belief that the Chinese deserve a formal apology from the Japanese government. Only a formal apology can lead to genuine reconciliation and only genuine reconciliation can lead to real peace. ...

3) Your readers are also welcome to post their views on our bulletin board. The Chinese should also know the Japanese's view.

...Thank you for letting the Japanese people know about our WWW. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

This correspondence is also our message to all Japanese visitors. We believe that it can clear some unintentional misunderstandings or some intentional misinterpretations of this project.

Finally, a few words about this project. It is originated from a personal experiment based on some publications of the actual Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre in Nanjing City which it has no official connection. Once it is created, it is no longer "personal". It will be vigorously updated and improved until Japanese government make a formal apology to its victims during the War.

Thank you again for your support and comments.

Sincerely yours,

C. Cheung
The Hall Maintainer

About the Hall Maintainer

The following is an excerpt from a correspondence with a curious visitor.

1) What is your background for the Web, acting as a private, or as a group?
2) Are you from mainland China?

My answers to your questions are ambiguous.

First of all, the website is in Hong Kong but contributed/maintained by people from different parts of the world....

You can say it is "private" but obviously it is supported by many organizations and individuals. You can say that we are working for them but you are also included in "them" if you share our objectives.

As for myself, it is even more ambiguous. I have been living, studying, and working in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China for a considerable length of time.

The only thing unambiguous is that I am one of those Chinese who worries so much about the future when he looks into the past. So he decides to fight against those who poison the future by glorifying the most ugly and savage part of their history. ...

Sincerely yours,

C. Cheung
The Hall Maintainer

News About This Hall

Part of the pages will be reproduced in the August issue of Shin-Eiken, a journal for peace education in English teaching. The journal is published by the New English Teachers Association of Japan, a non profit organaization of English Teachers, mainly from junior senior high school in Japan.

19 Mar 96

Some materials will be reproduced in a CD-ROM for American high school students.

14 Feb 96

Used as reference materials by a course "Comparative Genocide and Mass Violence" at the University of the West of England, and the University of Bristol